madamemodiste

So here in Philly we celebrate Bastille Day at a big block party outside of Eastern State Penitentiary with champagne in the streets and a storming of the prison where our own Marie Antoinette throws down Tastykakes (local pastry co) exclaiming, "Let them eat Kake!"

It's fun! (  See? )

So it's usually 100 degrees on Bastille Day, so I decided to make a new cotton polonaise. Stealing a great idea from bauhausfrau, I bought two packages of Shabby Chic white voile embroidered curtains at Target and made a skirt. Yay! So here it is:





This was my first experience leveling a skirt from the waist. I found it hard and I won't jump to do it again :) Without the advice of Ms. Amy J, I doubt I would have finished it (she advised I find an object that is the same height from the floor that I want the skirt to be (I used a cracker box), wrap a piece of twill tape around the waist, adjust the fullness evenly, and begin adjusting the hem from the top until the embroidered hem hits the top of the box all the way around)

The bodice will be a black and ivory stripe with pink and green floral ticking. I've had all this fabric in the Stash for several years and I'm so happy to finally get to this project. I hope I finish in time!!

So far today I've only cut out the fashion fabric and lining of the bodice and overskirt.

Well, I finally did it! I made a single layer Victorian corset.

I'm taking a pattern and drafting class at Temple University. Hey, I might as well take advantage of the costume/theatre department and learn sewing skills while I get my degree. Where else can I learn from professionals twice a week and have access to amazing tools and supplies? It's like Project Runway in there!

Anyway, our latest project was to draft and build a corset from scratch. We could pick any era we wanted from the 1500s to the 1950s. I went with 1890s. I picked a pattern I liked from Robert Doyle's Waisted Efforts: an 1892 corset with hip gores. I chose a fancy white coutil for my fabric.

First I had to grid out the pattern because it wasn't printed on a grid. I measured the corset pattern front and back length and measured my own front and back length. When I scaled up the pattern, it had to match my measurements, not the ones on the original, which is too small. With the help of my classmates who have taken math classes much more recently than I have, we figured out the grid so the pattern would draft up closer to my measurements. No, I couldn't repeat that process again if you put a gun to my head.

Once the grid was figured out, I grabbed real life grid paper and started drawing. By hand I drew out each piece in life size, cut them out, transferred them to muslin (with a generous 1 inch seam allowance), cut out the muslin, sewed them together, cut spiral steel, taped them to the places I wanted boning with masking tape, basted on pre-made boned lacing panels, and tried it on.

From there, my professor marked where I needed changes. The bust and hips were too big and the curve from my rib cage to my bust needed to be sharper. It was also longer than I felt was comfortable, so we marked where I wanted the bottom hem to sit (so I could sit without getting poked in the no-no place).

I went back to my paper pattern and, using the "slash and spread" method (or in my case, "slash and squish"), made changes to the pattern pieces that needed them and trued up my edges.

Then I transferred my new pattern to the coutil, sewed them up, put on the boning channels using boning tape, set the busk, altered the previous boning to fit and tipped the bones, made and sewed on self fabric bias binding (by hand inside and outside), and hammered on nearly 3 dozen size 00 two piece grommets. At this point my hands were throbbing!!

and here she is! Of course she fits me better than my dress form, so ignore the fit.



( see more here )
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I've been sewing up a storm, but they are secret projects for the Steampunk World's Fair, so I can't reveal them until May. Anyway, The Croc dress and the Madeline dress are just about finished. I found myself with Judy over at Jomar yesterday and came across a lovely black cotton with white stripes for only $2/yd. I picked up 7 yards and looked through my "striped dress" photos to see if any spoke to me. This one did:

From The Age of Innocence, this is a gown May wears on two occasions while "visiting."



( another view )

Since I wanted to make the underskirt out of plain black cotton to save the striped fabric, and I was out of plain black cotton, I started on the overskirt. Here it is shown over an old petticoat that has seen better days.

( click here to see my progress )

Some time in the middle of last week I finished most of the skirt. Still need to line the bottom of the tabs and buy red fringe. (Joann's got red bias tape back in stock. yay!)

Today I decided on a design for the bodice and cut the pieces out. That's about it for today since I have to get ready to go out to dinner soon.

***

In other sewing news, I got sick of the Croc dress and decided to work on a few other things. I made a natural form era over skirt for sale so I could buy trims and such, and sold it to a friend. I also started work on that Period Impressions 1809 spencer pattern. Making it out of a really pretty midnight blue velvet. My measurements were closest to the 28" waist size run, so I cut that one out. Opps. Way, way too big. Does Period Impressions include too much ease like Butterick does?? Since it wasn't a "Big 3" pattern, I assumed it would finish in the measurements stated, but it was much bigger. So I had to take the whole thing apart. Need to trim each piece to a more reasonable size and try again. But I'll get back to that another time.

Can't believe school starts up again in a week. My Winter Break was much too short!

I've missed talking to you guys about sewing projects! My semester became so overwhelming that I couldn't sew a thing after October.

But now I'm BACK!! Yay!

I have a few projects I hope to complete over Winter Break.

I'm making a version of this Pingat dress from the Kyoto book:



But I'm using some crazy fabric I found at Jomar: red satin embossed with a crocodile pattern. I'm using that where ever you see the floral fabric on the Pingat dress. Then I have a faux silk dupioni in a matching red for the rest of the dress. I'm still looking for a good red fringe. I plan to skip the plaid bow at the neckline ;)



The color is a bit off here, but you get the idea.

Another thing I think I'm going to tackle first is a black velvet ballgown bodice for a late 1880s style gown. Sort of like the bodice on the left (but in black).

Well, after over a year, I have picked up the Regency dress project again. Here is where it is now. It just needs a skirt and sleeve hem and it's done.
If memory serves, I think I used a combination of patterns from Sense and Sensibility as I wanted a flatter front on the skirt and the drawstring top, but I forget the details.

I hate how square the shoulders look on the dress form. Man, I hope it doesn't look like that on me!

As I'm a lazy, non-period accurate costumer, I was happy to take some advice regarding cartridge pleating the overskirt on my Elizabethan. Decorator's pleating tape! It doesn't give as clean a result as hand cartridge pleating, but I have a feeling it saved me some time (which I have very little left to finish this thing). So here's a shot of the dress in it's current state. I'm still fiddling with the trim.



The overskirt obviously isn't sewn to the underskirt yet, but it's an idea of how things will look in the end.

Whew! It's done!



( MORE PHOTOS HERE )

I got two rows of pleats and two rows of double ruffles onto the gown. I made the pleats and the ruffles were pre-purchased trim. Then I put satin bias tape over the join of the pleats/ruffles.

Progress photos:

making the pleats with Beth's antique pleater. I used 22 yards of 60" fabric. The pleats are 5" wide.



( More this way... )

This is a gown that's been on my "to do" list for forever, but I never had enough black taffeta sitting around at one time to do it. The other day I got 16 yards of a good crisp medium weight black taffeta for $1/yd at Jomar. I knew it was time!!



I am using the TV 208 view A, and it has an option for a pocket in the side seam. I decided it would be awesome to have a pocket, so since the TV pocket instructions were scanty, I looked it up. Here was a great set of instructions for a visual learner such as myself. Dude, I did it!! I made a pocket! I feel like some grade school kid who just learned how to tell time or something lol!

In other news, I seem to have temporarily abandoned the black velvet coat bodice because I dread putting button holes through all that velvet O_O

OMG, I just realized I never shared the "finished" photos of the ballgown I recently made

( click here to see the photos )